In 1708 Sweden planned to retake Ingermanland
from Russians. The main attack was to be done by Army of Finland under
Lubecker’s command. Swedish military forces in Estland & Livland were very
limited, so their tasks were to cover their provinces & divert Russian
troops at Dorpat & Narva. In July of 1708 Swedes sent one reitar & one
foot regiments from Reval to Wesenberg to cover Estland from Russian raiding
parties from Narva. The foot regiment was Livländskt varvade infanteriregemente under command of colonel Hans
Henrik von Liewen. At first time it was raised in the end of 1700 (patent
issued on 28.06.1700) as a varvade infantry battalion. It was ruined at Erestfer
in December 1701. Then it was re-established in spring of 1702 & again
destroyed at Hummelshof. Raised again and expanded in 1703 to a regiment of 12 companies each of
84 men. The Livkompaniet was equipped as grenadiers. In August of 1708 Liewen
went to Reval, commanding officer was lieutenant-colonel Heinrich Johan von Schlippenbach
(son of Wolmar Anton von Schlippenbach). The mounted unit was Estland och Ingermanland Adelsfan.
It’s colonel F. Wachmeister was in captivity since June of 1704, his
second-in-command was lieutenant-colonel Joachim Fredrik von Liewen. In summer
of 1708 the regiment was of 8 coys totaled about 600 men. So, Swedes had about
1,500 men.
On 9
August (NS) a Russian raiding party destroyed Swedish mounted patrol near
Wesenberg & captured a lieutenant & 5 reitars. Captives told that two
Swedish regiments were encamped near Wesenberg. Russian commander
General-Admiral Fedor Apraxin decided to cut-off & destroy them. His Corps
consisted of a converged dragoon regiment under colonel Vasiliy Monastyrev
(about 1,000 dragoons from Lutck, Vologda & Narva regiments), 300 converged
dragoons from Bauer Division, 500 Cossacks under Bekhmetev & 3 infantry
battalions from Narva garrison (I assume they were from Bush, Fichtenheim &
Inglis regiments), totaled about 3-3,300 men.
Apraxin troops marched from Narva on
26 August 1708. The same day Russian destroyed a small Swedish redoubt on river
Sem which was held by 2 coys of infantry (150 men) & 40 reitars. Captives
gave more detailed info about Swedish troops & Apraxin continued his march
on west. His vanguard was of 500 Cossacks under Bekhmetev, then Apraxin marched
with dragoon & the last was infantry. When Bekhmetev approached Swedish
camp at Vinna (2 miles on west from Wesenberg), he found Swedes ready to fight
& decided to retreat to main Russian troops. Swedes followed him & met
with Apraxin’s cavalry in one mile on west from Wesenberg. Swedes repelled
attack of Russian cavalry, and Apraxin decided to wait for his infantry. When
it came on the battlefield, Russians formed a battle-line & again attacked
Swedes. Apraxin wrote that battle-lines approached each other on 45 meters.
Enemies made only one volley, then Swedes turned back. Estland Adelsfan could
retreat with minimum losses, but Swedish infantry was cut-off by Russian
cavalry & totally destroyed. Apraxin wrote that he took 244 men (incl. H.J. Schlipenbach)
& 916 Swedes were killed. Hoglund mentions that only infantry lost 241 PoWs
& 704 killed. Russian losses according to Apraxin were only 16 killed &
53 wounded.
H.H. Liewen regiment was re-built again in
1708-1709 (11 coys, incl. one of grenadiers)
Бой у мызы Виньи, 15/26 августа
1708.
Летом 1708 г. шведское командование запланировало
наступление с целью отбить занятую русскими Ингрию. Главное наступление должно
было осуществляться Финляндской армией Любекера, а имевшиеся в Лифляндии и
Эстляндии войска должны были провести отвлекающие операции. В соответствии с
этим планом, в сторону Дерпта и Нарвы в июле 1708 г. выдвинулись небольшие
шведские отряды, задача которых была прикрыть шведские провинции от русских
рейдов и, по возможности, блокировать данные крепости. 29 июля (СС) из Нарвы в
сторону Ревеля была отправлена партия в 100 казаков, которая под Везенбергом
разгромила шведский разъезд и взяла в плен поручика Штакельберга и 5 рейтар.
Пленные сообщили, что около Везенберга (Ракобора) стоят «2 неприятельские регимента, один пехотной полковника фон Лива, которым
командовал полуполковник Шлифенбах, в нем было 12 рот, другой рейтарский
подполковника фон Лива, в нем рейтар 600 человек».